Innovating to Help Solve Pressing Healthcare Issues

Earlier this week, I had the honor of speaking on the CEOs Unplugged panel on Innovation at the 2018 AdvaMed MedTech Conference. While many communities globally are facing a wide array of health-related issues – increasing care costs and a national opioid crisis, to name just a couple of the most pressing – it can be easy to forget that the healthcare industry is in the midst of countless ground-breaking advancements and discoveries. With over 3,000 leading executives in the medical technology space from over 30 countries in attendance, the AdvaMed MedTech conference was an important showcase and reminder of the incredible progress in our field and the vision of what’s to come next.

Companies like Avanos are working hard to address the world’s most important healthcare issues. Embracing technology and innovation is a critical driver of this progress. At Avanos, we are investing heavily in new solutions through our pain technology center, which sits within our R&D organization. But we also recognize that true innovation does not just happen in a lab. We work closely with patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals throughout the product development process to ensure that we are meeting – and anticipating – the evolving needs of the industry.

At Avanos we have developed therapies – ON-Q and Coolief – that effectively treat acute and chronic pain in a way that minimizes or eliminates the need for opioids. And we have made enormous advancements to date - today, a patient can be mobile within 24 hours of a total knee repair, with the help of ON-Q. But with 100 million Americans in chronic pain, we are also working with exciting technologies focused on the central and peripheral nervous system – for example, bioelectric medicine – to manage pain and treat inflammatory disease. This is a tremendous area of innovation in the medical devices space that is resulting in incredibly impactful, patient-oriented outcomes.

This is an incredibly exciting time in the industry, and the onus is on us to continue to develop breakthrough technologies and further push the envelope of innovation to solve the world’s most pressing healthcare issues. The AdvaMed MedTech conference is a valuable forum that brings together the best thinking in the industry and inspires us all to set our goals even higher. Thank you to the entire AdvaMed MedTech team for inviting me to speak at such a relevant, thought-provoking event.